The Seventh Member of the Storm Hawks

The Black Gorge

"So where are we going Piper?" Nika asked as she bounded into the bridge tossing an orange between her hands, the navigator stayed silent for a few moments. "Well, since we got away from the Talons, I was thinking we could take a shortcut over the Black Gorge and that way we could get to Terra Von where we could get some supplies." Piper suggested with everyone mumbling an agreement apart from Stork who visibly twitched. Nika nodded and began to peel her orange, digging in to her small snack – quite oblivious to Stork's mental breakdown. "THE BLACK GORGE?!" He shouted shaking, he paced around the room while everyone watched – half amused, half worried. "What's wrong Stork?" Junko piped up, snapping the Merb out of his hyperventilating state, though it might have been better if he kept hyperventilating. "Only one person has escaped the Black Gorge – I'm telling you that this is a bad idea! We will all get Gorge Fever and never see the light of day again!" He ranted, Piper rolled her eyes with a sigh of discontent – Nika wondered if Stork was literally paranoid about everything, never mind he probably was, "Stork, it's just a legend." Aerrow spoke with reason, Nika's lips made a tense line – she didn't have a good feeling about this but what would she know? She hadn't left her home terra until she was twelve and then she wasn't allowed to leave Atmosia until a couple of weeks ago.

Nika was lost in her own thoughts until Finn bumped into her legs, she spun on her behind nearly falling off the couch in the process, "Hey what?" She spoke quickly, realising she was away in a daydream. "We are going over the Black Gorge – what's the big deal anyway?" Finn complained while fixing his hair. "Well, if you ask me, every time Stork has been paranoid about something – he usually has a good reason." Nika replied, sure Stork took his paranoia too far sometimes but that's the way Merbs were or so she heard. Suddenly the Condor lurched, as if something had grabbed it and was pulling it down – the brunette's face paled as she felt the orange come back on her, Nika curled into a ball as much as she could – there was no way that she was going to be sick in front of everyone.

"Welcome to the Black Gorge, it's a one-way ticket to doom!" Stork called darkly, Nika grabbed a rail and held on tight, trust Stork to not sugar coat your impending death. The sirens started going berserk as Nika cringed with the noise, Stork started to chuckle darkly as the Condor slipped into the dark abyss, Nika nearly face palmed – he has officially lost it. "What's our status?" Aerrow shouted, being the only calm one on the ship – well, he was acting the calmest out of everyone. "Losing crystal power fast!" Piper shouted back, her orange eyes showing fear. "Oh, we're going down man, we're going down!" Finn exclaimed grabbing Junko by the shirt before the pair looked out of the window to see the Condor heading straight for a jagged cliff. Nika tensed as Finn screamed like a girl and ran away from the window, wasn't he the bravest Storm Hawk to ever grace Atmos? Nika thought sarcastically, but she kept it to herself – last thing anyone needed was her and Finn fighting, frankly she couldn't be bothered either. Stork made the ship turn to avoid the danger, not everyone had a chance to hang on and lurched from side to side as he manoeuvred. Nika regretted the orange, feeling her stomach doing knots – for some reason she forgot to be scared, maybe concentrating on not throwing up makes you forget.

"Hold on!" Aerrow's voice shouted, his voice wavering a little. Nika wrapped her arms around the rail and squeezed her eyes shut – the ship plummeting down the gorge at a hundred miles an hour. But there was no crash, the brunette visibly let out a breath she had been holding. Opening her eyes, she saw Stork give a thumbs up – she frowned, he was perfectly calm – how was he calm? That really concerned her. The lights flickered on and off before they stayed off, everyone let out a short scream when the ship dropped onto a cliff. "I would like to take this opportunity to remind you all that I told you a SHORTCUT over the Black Gorge would have catastrophic results!" He ranted, great now he was in a bad mood, Nika sighed irritably – trust Stork, of all people, to do the honours of "I told you so!". Nika winced as she rolled out her back, glancing over at the Merb. "C'mon Stork. You know all that talk about the Black Gorge is just spooky old legends." Aerrow replied optimistically still sitting on the floor, the Condor went quiet as something howled. "Isn't it?" He asked, unsure himself. Nika stood up and gave Aerrow a hand, he was holding his forehead and wincing. "Aerrow let me see." She commanded softly, he shook his head with a gentle smile, "It's just a scratch, I'm fine." Frowning she grabbed his hand and brought it down, well he was right – it was a scratch. Just that it was bleeding a little, her eyes met his for a second before she grabbed a clean fabric from her small pouch and pressed it to his head. "I'm fine, Nika, honest." He said, his voice stuttering a little – his face was rather close to hers since he bent his head down to stop her straining to reach his forehead. 'I could maybe just- No Aerrow, keep it together. Everyone is here and depending on you.' He thought, he couldn't help it – if it was Piper then he would've been fine but it was Nika and quite honestly, he was surprised his knees had given out yet. Nika was looking at him, she was paying attention to him. A small smile tugged on his lips, Nika noticed. "What are you smiling about?" She asked carefully pressing a small plaster on his head, eyes flickering with suspicion. "Um... Nothing! We need to get out of here." Aerrow replied quickly, his cheeks going red as he waved his hands in front of himself.